Circumstances of freedom
by El-Queso
Summary: It only takes one second for Your life to be taken, torn into pieces. Tommy, Kimi, Dil, Chuckie and Chaz wer all in accident. Now Chuckie has "departed" and Tommy is stripped of his only rational desire: Freedom.


A/n: so this little ficlet is based off of an idea i had about 2 minutes before i picked up my laptop, so go easy.

Outside it was free. Birds chirped. Squirrels ran about. Leaves went with the wind, not a care in the world. Even people were free to an extant, although there own illusions of order and society kept them bound. At least, that's how Tommy felt.

You see, Tommy pickles was not free anymore. He found it bittersweetly ironic, seeing how he craved it because he didn't have i, yet the rest of the country took advantage of it. He brushed off the crumbs of toast from this morning, when his mother brought it in, checked his brace and his prosthetic, whispered sweet, motherly things too him, and left to go about her business. He often screamed when he was sure no one was around. Verbalizing his emotions was the only reason he felt human anymore. Lately, he felt like a fucking plant. There was a wheelchair by his bed that he never used, because the doctor said he would never be able to fully move again, and even using the damn wheelchair was only for emergencies, like if there was a fire. So, he spent each and every day in that bed, always with visits from Dill, who had also been damaged n the accident, but remained his former self. 5 or 6 times a week, he received a visit from lil and or phil, and he would laugh and reassure them he was ok, and he always felt like a little bit of his heart was torn out whenever they left. The words "Shut the door behind you" felt so natural to his lips now, his mom and dad told him he said them in his sleep.

Oh yes, Tommy Pickles was not free anymore.

It all started that day one month ago, In the Java Lava. FLASHBACK

_Tommy and Chuckie walked into the Java Lava, their voices filled with excitement . Close behind Dill followed, walking backwards. "I'm telling you, Chucko, this concerts gonna be amazing! I still can't believe they gave me these tickets!" Chuckie smirked. "Well, I, for one, still can't believe you won the award. I mean, Night of the Gerbil wasn't your best work." "Shut up!" They both laughed heartily, and all three of them reached the counter, where Kimi was wiping the Counter with a rag._

_"Hey Kimi, is da- ewwww what's that?" Chuckie cried mid-sentence, shuddering away from the spilled green liquid on the counter. Kimi rolled her eyes and continued scrubbing. "Relax, I just tried mixing the Pineapple lava explosion with the Banana Splat attack." Chuckie frowned. "Well, it looks disgusting!" Kimi shrugged. "Didn't taste half bad." Dil finally turned around and dipped his finger in the spilled goo and put it in his mouth. A huge smile spread across his already jubilant face and he cried, "Amazing! Get me one! No two! Heck, make it five, and give me a sixth one too go!" Tommy rolled his eyes. "Dil, we don't have any money." Kimi waved him off. "Naw, it's ok. On the house, but i'm only getting you one." Dil pouted and looked like he was about to protest, but Tommy elbowed him in the ribs and gave him a glare._

_As Kimi went to the blender, Chuckie said, "As I was saying before we were introduced to your slop, Is dad around? We need a ride." Kimi nodded. "He's around back." She had to shout over the blender. Chuckie nodded and quickly ran around the counter to the back room, but not before he tripped over a banana peel. "Kimi!" He groaned, picking himself up. "Oops!" cried Kimi, pulling her finger up to her lip . "Sorry!" Tommy observed her closely, and he couldn't help but think of how cute she looked when she was guilty. But he refused to dwell on that. She was Chuckie's sister after all._

_Tommy was pulled out his trance when Dil nudged him. "Dude!" he whispered, an "I-know-your-secret" voice dancing off of his hushed lips. "What?" "Your crushing on Kimi!" Tommy desperately tried to hide the red that crept on his face as he realized he was caught. "Kimi, pffft, nooo way. After all she's chuckie's sister!" He whispered back. "Whatever, bro." Dil smiled, and Tommy frowned. "How would you know, anyway?" Dil smiled and patted his head with his finger. "Brother's intuition." Tommy smirked and decided to drop it. "Plus you were totally checking her out." "Dil!" "What? I''m just telling you-"_

_They were pulled out of their bickering when Kimi said from the counter. "Here you go, Dil." Dil smiled in thanks and took the cup from here. "Sweet." "So, you guys excited for the concert?" Tommy and Dil answered in unison, "Yeah!" "Well you deserve it Tommy, your movie was great, like always. Of course, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good without the beautiful leading lady, if i do say so myself." Tommy felt butterflies go up in his stomach at her compliment. Suddenly, before he could stop himself, he said, "You wanna come? We have a fourth ticket, which we were gonna give to someone randomly on the street and tape their reaction, but lets face it, you're one of our closest friends and we need you there because i'm sure you'll have fun and you deserve it because, your a friend. Did I mention your a friend?" Tommy realized he was suddenly talking very fast and quickly shut his mouth. Kimi gasped. "Really? You mean it? I'll go ask my dad!"_

_20 minutes later, they were all in the car. Tommy sat all the way on the right, Chuckie sat in the middle, and Dil on the other side, while Kimi sat up front with Chas. "Man I can't wait for this concert! It's gonna be wicked tight!" said Tommy, fist pumping. "Yeah!" said Chuckie. "I love the drummer, he's so good!" And he beat his hands in the air as if he was playing the drums. "Yeah, just don't try to take over!" smirked Kimi, grimacing when she remembered Chuckie's playing._

_"I personally don't get what all the hype is about. Honestly, with you kids it's a new band every week." Said Chas, sniffling, then continuing his sentence. "Last month it was "The River of Tears" And then before that it was. "My Knife is dull."" Kimi rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Dad, "Doom and Grace" is a great band. Here listen, I have the CD in."_

_"Kimi, I don't think-"  
>"C'mon dad, try it. You always say don't judge a book by it's cover."<br>She pressed the play button, and the heavy drums immediately began.  
>Chas flinched, almost swerving into the next lane.<br>"That's not music! Thats noise! Turn it off!"  
>He pressed the pause button  
>"Oh, don't be such a stick in the mud!"<br>She pressed play.  
>"Kimi, I said no!"<br>pause.  
>"Dad, it's ok!"<br>Play.  
>"Kimi!"<br>"Dad!"  
>"Kimi!"<br>"Dad!"_

_"Look out!" Screamed Tommy, pointing. Everyone tore their eyes off the radio and looked out the window._

_A huge black SUV was coming towards them. Chas had pulled out in the middle of an intersection at a red light without paying attention._

_Time slowed to almost slow motion. Tommy knew he was gonna get hit with most of the damage, so he frantically unbuckled and attempted to hit the floor. However, he had only a few miliseconds, so he only managed to turn his back to the SUV to unbuckle. All he remembered was a huge crunch, Chuckie's scream, Dil's frantic shouting in spanish, Kimi's "Dad, look out!" and Chas's "AAA!" A searing pain traveled up Tommy's leg, followed by millions more as shards of glass hurled themselves into his leg. One made his was into his back, piercing a segment of his spine, causing him to go limp on the chair. Then the tiny prius tipped over on it's side and Tommy could only hang limp and watch as Chuckie unwittingly shielded Dil from millions of shards of glass. With his face. Then Tommy passed out, and woke 5 days later. In a hospital bed. Without a leg. And, more importantly, without a Chuckie._

Flashback end

Tommy cried loudly every time his blasted mind shoved it all in front of his face, and it only got more real every time.

Tommy's eyes fluttered open slightly. it was a saturday, but it didn't matter. He looked up and was surprised to see Kimi standing at the foot of the bed. He smiled slightly. She had texted him last night and told him she would see him in the morning, but not this early. "Hey, T-Tommy." She stared at his injuries as the blanket slipped off them when he sat up. He was not surprised at her reaction at him, since she and the other finsters had left for maine, the birthplace of Chuckle, for the funeral almost immediately, not allowing her to see him. . She moved out from the foot of the bed, and he could see her bright blue cast all the way up to her knee. He stared at it for a moment, knowing she wouldn't be healed for another month. Almost all of her tendons had broken in the accident, so they would take a while before they healed. He gave her a weak smile and she just nodded, still staring, awestruck, at his injuries. He had a stump for a right leg, and a brace to support the left one, his bare chest had stitches on almost every corner. "That's- bad," She whispered. Tommy just smirked. "Yeah I know, I'd hate to be that guy.!" Kimi laughed, but quickly shut herself up. "My dad's invited you to an apology dinner tonight, you know, four course meal, appetizers, dessert the works, at lebouf's, since he thinks it's his fault you ended up like this. Can you-?" She gently nudged the yet unused wheelchair, unable to complete her sentence. Tommy looked out the window, seeing Chaz and Kira next door talking to Didi, no doubt exchanging apologies, "It wasn't your fault"'s and emotions.

Tommy sighed. "No." He put a little too much oomph on the word, but he got the point across. Kimi's face fell, "Well when can you move again?" "Never, probably. The prosthetic and wheelchair are just for show, according to the quack of a doctor that comes a gazillion times a week." Kimi felt tears fall down her cheeks. She came here hoping things could be back to normal, but she knew the whole time that was just a big fat joke. Chuckie was gone, and Tommy was bed ridden forever. "Listen kimi, why don't you go hang out with phil and lil. You guys should just forget about me. I don't want to be the guy who's holding you back just cause I can't go anywhere. It's for the best if you guys don't visit or anything, just forget about me. After all, who wants to be friends with a fucking plant anyway?"

Kimi shook her head, not able to bear to hear Tommy say this anymore. "Shut up, you know that's not happening in a million years, Thomas Pickles, and if I ever hear those words again, I'll rip out your vocal cords so you can't say them anymore!" She had suddenly gotten really close to him, now her nose was touching his, her glare intense. Tommy could smell the mango shampoo, and he fought back the urge to burst into tears, instead he just sighed, and looked out the window like he had so many times before.

Kimi cracked. She put her head on Tommy's shoulder and gently  
>sobbed, her tears wetting his old blanket. He continued staring, wishing this would all reverse itself, wished that he would wake up from this nightmare. "T-t-tommy, your so brave, y-y-y-yo-your so brave and strong to be able to live this!" He looked at her, his face not betraying any emotion, and suddenly asked, "You know why my mom never brings me any food that needs to be cut up anymore?" Kimi looked up into his dark, cold, despair-filled eyes, tears still streaming. "Wh-why?" "Because she thinks I'll kill myself with the knife. And she's probably right."<p>

The next day, Kimi texted him at least 5 times a minute, and she immediately called him if he didn't respond within 10 seconds. Tommy knew he had really scared her with the whole knife thing, so if he didn't respond, she probably feared the worst. And some of her texts were really hard to respond too. "_At Victoria's Secret with my mom, i'm getting a pink Bra! Lolz_"? What was he supposed to say to that? "_No, girl, Blue is so totally you! Roflz_"? He knew she was just looking desperately for subjects to talk about, just so she could feel reassured when he texted back. After a while, he realized she probably wasn't even reading the texts, since she just wanted him to respond, so he finally just said "K" or "Yup" to pretty much everyone.

Tommy sighed as he texted back another "k" and sat back, staring at the ceiling doing the only thing that entertained him; counting the cracks. Yeah, he had tv, but seeing all those shows with regular people who's best friends weren't gone, well, it just hit too close to home. He felt his eyelids grow heavy, and he came so close to sleep that he saw glimpses of his first dreams.  
>"Buzz Buzzzzzzzz!" Tommy hissed in annoyance and looked at the bedside table where he had set his phone. He reached for it, already forming the words of frustration he planned to text her, when he slipped off the bed and fell, his nose slamming into the carpet and broke. He groaned as the blood gushed from his nose. He tried to climb back in his bed, but a pain shot up his spine, triggering tears to fall from his eyes. He fell down, trying to move his numb left leg, but it only shot more pain up his back. He instead reached for the wheelchair that was kept beside his bed, but his fingers slipped and it wheeled away, stopping way outside his reach. He quickly grabbed his phone, since it had fallen with him, and he trie to unlock it, but it was hard, because now blood was all over the screen,, he wiped it on the portion of carpet within his reach that was not covered in blood. The bleeding had pretty much stopped, but the pain in his back was now mind numbing. The phone vibrated, and it was a call from Kimi, and he thanked God and pressed "answer.".<p>

_ "Tommy are you ok? Why didn't you text back?"  
><em> "No, Kimi, I fell down and broke my nose and my back hurts and i cant climb back in bed!"  
><em>"Tommy! Me and Dad are coming over now! If your doors locked, we might have to break it! just stay there!"<em>  
>"Not like I have a choice."<br>_Stay on the phone, ok? That way i'll know your ok-"  
><em>  
>Damn, he thought All outta juice. He sighed and muttered. "Nighty-night."<p>

Tommy never woke up with his eyes first anymore. He listened for sounds, because he knew when he opened his eyes, he'd be shoved back in the harsh reality that was his life. He heard whispering voices. He recognized his parents immediately, partially because they were right next to him. He then heard Dil, then Lil and Phil, then Chas and Kira. He also heard a small wheeping sound, but was unable to identify who was crying.

He finally opened his eyes. There was also a Doctor, hovering right above him. It wasn't Dr. Donn, though, his usual doctor. As soon as he noticed that Tommy opened his eyes, he exclaimed in a thick German accent: "Vell, I see zat our patient 'as finally awakened from 'is slumber!" everyone immediately started cheering, and Tommy gave a weak smile as his father helped him sit up. "Good to see ya champ!" smiled Stu, gently patting him on the head. "Tommy, I'm so glad your awake!" cried Didi, gently hugging him, tears spilling over her eyelids. Phil and Lil approached the bed, smiling identically. "Tommy-o!" smiled Phil, raising his hand for a fist bump. When Tommy just offered a small smile, Lil gently touched Phil's shoulder, and he put it down. Dil, who was sitting in his own wheelchair due to his duel fractures, smiled and waved. "Yo, T, your lucky that I performed that ceremonial wheelchair dance I found on Wikipedia! You might've never woken up!" Tommy smiled and rolled his eyes, before his eyes fell on Chas and Kira, who were at the foot of his bed. Chas had clearly recently been crying, his red eyes gleaming. "Tommy, this is all my fault, all of this. If I knew how to pay attention to the road, you would be totally fine, and none of these problems would exist! Oh, I'm so sorry." Tommy could tell he would be looking at his feet in sadness, but the neck brace he was stuck with for life prevented it. "Oh don't be silly, Chas, please don't blame this on yourself." Chas gave her a weak smile.

"What are you all talking about of course it's his fault! If it weren't for your terrible driving, Chas, my boys wouldn't need wheelchairs!" Cried Stu , surprising everyone in the room. Chas' eyes fell, and small tears brimmed in his yes. "Stu!" cried Dide in shock, " he was the one that saved Tommy while we were gone!" "Yeah, well, he wouldn't have to have been saved if Finsters knew how to drive!" At this point, Kira stepped forward, in a rage, with clear intentions to defend her husband. "Listen, Pickles!" she growled, trying to get around Phil, Lil, and Didi, who were all holding her back at this point. "Your lucky we love Tommy like family, or else he could've died!"

Shtop zis madness!" cried the German doctor, speaking for the first time since Tommy woke up. "Zee patient cannot handle zees fights! You!" he pointed at Stu. Stu flinched in surprise. "Apologize to zat man!" he pointed at Chas. Stu sighed and looked at his feet. "I guess your right." he walked over to Chas, carefully placing a hand on his shoulder. "Chas, I'm sorry. I forgot your in the same boat as us. I was insensitive. I'm sorry." Chas smiled, clearly glad it was over. "thanks Stu," he stuck out his hand."Friends?" Stu smiled genuinely and shook his hand. "Friends."

Tommy looked around. For some reason, he couldn't find the one person he wanted to talk to. He weakly waved his hand, asking for attention. The doctor expertly took notice of this, and turned to the buzzing crowd gathered around the stage that was Tommy's bed and shouted, "Shut up! Zee patient iz attempting communication! Shush your mouths right this very moment, or ve risk not hearing him!"

Tommy coughed softly, then he whispered in a rasp: " Kimi..." Kira's face softened and said, "Oh, Thomas honey, she's at home, said she couldn't bare this." Tommy just nodded and was knocked out within seconds.

He was awake a few seconds later. At least, thats what it felt like to him. He listened for a moment, confused to not hear anyone. He cautiously opened his eyelids only too see darkness. He pulled out his phone and squinted at the bright screen.

_10 texts from Kimi F.  
>Look now Ignore<br>_ Tommy sighed and pressed "look now". He also glanced at the time. It was 1:58.

_Tommy! Tommy why'd  
>You hang up?<em>

_U ok?_

_Hey!_

_My parents are coming over to check on you._

_Hows the party?_

_Hey._

_Whats up?_

_Is your back ok?  
>Is ur badmitton alright?<em>

_Srry, Autocorrect. Is ur back alright?  
><em>  
>Tommy sighed and hit the reply button.<p>

_Yeah, sorry I wuz asleep. I need someone to talk too :(. Will you come over?_

He waited a few minutes, then he heard his phone buzz.

_ Tommy, it's 2:00 in the morning!_

He grinned, and replied.

_ Please, Kimi? The ladder's right in the front yard, you can come in my window. :D._

_Fine, just stop with all the faces. Im comin._

Sure enough, 10 minutes later, he heard the ladder being shifted out of the grass and leaned against the window. Moments later, Kimi knocked on the window, her beautiful, tired eyes full of dry tears.

Tommy knew he shouldn't lean forward, so he used his old hockey stick to carefully unhinge the window.

"Tommy!" She whisper-yelled, rushing forward as fast as he cast allowed her too. "Are you ok?"

He shrugged. He had a sudden lump in his throat, and he didn't want to risk it evolving into tears.

"Tommy, I'm here to talk, so let's talk!" She urged, sitting on his wheelchair and absentmindedly wheeling slightly forward and backward by pushing with her good heel. Tommy just shrugged and stared at the floor. Don't cry, Don't cry. You haven't cried since Chuckie's departure, you wont cry now. As if reading his mind, Kimi stopped her wheeling and said, "Tommy, you've gotta cry sometimes, it's not good to keep your emotions bottled up." Tommy looked up, squinting his eyes to fight the tears. "I'm not supposed to cry. I don't need to." His voice quite obviously wavered, but he still fought back the sobs. Kimi felt tears beginning to brim in her own eyes, and she leaned forward and put a hand on his cheek. "Cry, Tommy." He desperately shook his head as fast as his aching neck allowed. "No!" He half yelled at her, his force like a flurry of bullets. Kimi glared and said. "T-Tommy, either y-you cry, or I cry!"

The sobs started so suddenly, they were almost unnoticed. His body racked as he sobbed and cried. His emotions liquified and spilled out his eyes. All he wanted was to have Chuckie back, all he wanted was to be normal. Kim hugged him gently around his neck and cried as well, both of them sobbed, holding each other for support, for that's all they had.

A/N: Continue? No continue? Review please, it makes my day a lot better, especially since I spent 4 days writing this.


End file.
